1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for recording critical digital data on a storage medium and more particularly to a system and method in which the critical data is written to the storage medium in segments in order to reduce the loss of critical data as a result of system failure while the critical data is being written to a storage medium and to a playback system in which the segments are played back in real time.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various systems are known for writing data to various types of storage mediums. An exemplary type of storage medium is a disk drive, for example, as disclosed in commonly-owned U.S. Pat. No. 6,385,006. Examples of systems for writing digital data to such storage mediums are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,366,980; 6,341,318; 6,356,901 and 6,384,997. Such systems are known to record digital data including streaming digital data in various formats, such as the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) format; a popular standard for both video and audio compression.
Computer operating systems are known to open a file or multiple files and update the files as data is transferred to and from the storage medium. More particularly, known operating systems utilize a file allocation table (FAT) that is updated with the time that each file is modified. The file is closed when the data transfer is complete. Should a system failure or power loss occur before the file is closed, data associated with the file is normally lost. Accordingly, critical data, such as video and/or audio data, can be lost while being written to a storage medium. Thus, there is a need for a system for reducing the loss of critical data as a result of a system failure when such data is being written to a storage medium.